The Solution to the 49ers Injury Problem
When a team wants to upgrade its offense, it hires an offensive coach from a team that scores lots of points.
When a team wants to upgrade its defense, it hires a defensive coach from a team that gives up a miniscule amount of points. This is standard business in the NFL.
So why should teams treat their training staffs any differently?
The 49ers training staff currently consists of Ben Peterson, who came from the NFL, and Dustin Perry, who came the University of Minnesota. Perry has been with the 49ers since 2017, and Peterson since 2019. Neither person has reduced the 49ers injuries.
In 2017, the 49ers lost 91.6 games due to injury. In 2018, they lost 97.2 games to injury. In 2019, they lost 95.8 games to injury. And in 2020, they lost a league-leading 166.6 games to injury.
Bad trend.
Hiring a trainer from the NHL seems like a failed experiment. If the 49ers want to fix their injury problem, the solution seems obvious: replace the existing training staff with one that has a track record of results. The same way a team would fix its offense or defense.
First, let's find a team that does a good job preventing injuries.
Since 2017, the Rams have lost just 40 games per season on average, as opposed to the 49ers, who have lost 113 games per season to injury on average since 2017. Huge difference.
The 49ers should hire the Rams assistant trainer and make him their lead trainer. That way, if the injuries persist, we'll know it's not the training staff's fault.
